Update here. Tried a medrol dosepak (steroid taper) last week from my doc and still no improvement. Should I try maybe taking the magnesium glycinate more frequently throughout the day? I’m currently at 800mg Total /day in 2 separate 400mg doses.
Steroids can suppress your immune system (which is why they can help in certain cases) and make you more prone to osteoporosis. Medrol is a strongee one.
Most people are inadequate in magnesium, so it's worth a try. If 800mg a day of mag glycinate isn't giving you diarrhea, you likely need it. I take 350mg mag malate first thing in the morning and 350mg mag glycinate before bed which helps sleep. Do research any brand you take. Many are contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic.
You might want to think about comprehensive nutrient testing which may give you more clues. A Genova Diagnostics NutrEval with Vitamin D along with a Doctor's Data urine essential minerals test might be useful.
However,
too much can give you osteoporosis so be sure your doctor knows what supplements and vitamins you take. You are smart to think overdose since one 5000 iu pill is 1250% of the RDA and you are taking it 7 days per week (8,750% RDA per week). I was taking about 10,000 iu per day for about six months as part of a Gcmaf protocol and my doctor did a blood test and had me stop all vitamin D for a few months to get the level down. Vitamin D is fat soluble so it gets stored in body fat and takes a long time to come down. Hopefully you haven't done this too long and developed bone loss. You don't want to get osteoporosis.
Too little vitamin D and vitamin K will eventually give one osteoporosis. Though vitamin D hypervitaminosis is very real, most people are extremely short of it, and it's needed not only for bones but for proper immune function. (Low vitamin D gas been linked to worse cases of COViD...)
My mom's vitamin D level was 8ng/ml when she was tested after she broke her shoulder and had curved shin bones, and the Cleveland Clinic put her on 50,000 IU a week.
Turns out we have fairly common VDR SNPs making us need far more than the 800 IU recommendation. My vitamin D level dropped 20ng/ml in 2 months when I switched from 10,000 IU down to 6,000 IU daily.
General recommendations are that people need 4,000 IU to have a sufficient level. The Vitamin D Council is a good resource.
I currently have lupus so I get low sun exposure and take one vit D dose of 2,000-4,000 IU one day per week per appetite. I like weekly dosing because it is an immunosuppressant steroid so that minimizes the suppressive effect which works against my apoptosis regimen and it's very convenient. At one pill of 2,000 iu per week that's 71% of my weekly rda but I also get vit D from fish and fortified almond milk so it's about right (2 pills is 142% of my RDA)
Glad it's right for you, but this would be dangerous for many people around here. It's always best to test and make an individual system. My immune system isn't too spunky, but I have been improving and beat 7 chronic infections on 10,000 IU a day.
The RDA (now DV) is set to prevent osteoporosis which was emphatically wrong in my mom's case, and for many others.